Highlight

South Korean vocal group Highlight emerged as a seasoned evolution of Beast, the R&B-inflected pop ensemble responsible for three chart-topping domestic albums from 2011 to 2016. After parting ways with Cube Entertainment in early 2017, the members established Around Us as their independent label and adopted the new moniker Highlight at the same moment. Their first project under this banner, the full-length Daydream, surfaced five years later.

At that juncture the lineup functioned as a five-piece vocal unit led by Yoon Doo-Joon, with Yang Yo-Seob handling primary vocal duties, Lee Gi-Kwang serving as main dancer, Yong Jun-Hyung contributing rap sections, and Son Dong-Woon occasionally supplying lyrics. Songwriting responsibilities fell chiefly to Yo-Seob, Gi-Kwang, and Jun-Hyung. The sixth original member, Jang Hyun-Seung, departed in 2016 before the final Beast album, Highlight, whose title the rebranded act would later borrow. Their inaugural single, the piano-driven ballad “It’s Still Beautiful” co-authored by Jun-Hyung, arrived in March 2017 on the mini-album Can You Feel It?, which also contained the Jun-Hyung-assisted “Plz Don’t Be Sad,” a track that ascended to the top of the South Korean charts. Within two months the mini-album was reissued as Calling You, its artwork shifting to stark black-and-white imagery that replaced the brighter aesthetic of the initial release. By year’s end Highlight issued a second mini-album, Celebrate, featuring the Top Five hit “Can Be Better.”

A phase of uncertainty began in August 2018 when Doo-Joon entered mandatory military service. The remaining members continued as a quartet and promoted the Outro EP that November, an effort that retained Doo-Joon’s recorded vocals. Further enlistments in 2019 placed the group on hiatus until all members completed their terms in December 2020. During this interval Jun-Hyung exited in March 2019, while Gi-Kwang issued the solo EP I the same month; Doo-Joon returned with his own Daybreak EP in July 2020. Following their reunion, Highlight delivered The Blowing in May 2021—their first output in two-and-a-half years and their debut as a quartet. The full-length Daydream finally appeared in March 2022, its midtempo dance-pop title track anchoring the set, and the After Sunset EP followed later that year.